As I was coming home from an evening out tonight, I noticed that the two women who were working as parking valets kept running to get the cars. There was a steady stream of customers, so they were fairly busy, but as soon as they brought a car to the door and handed over the keys to its owner, they ran to pick up another ticket and get another car.
It was good to see them hustle like that, particularly after a recent experience I'd had with the exact opposite behavior. A couple of weeks ago, when I was in Tunica, the valets at the hotel never ran anywhere. I didn't have a stopwatch, but I don't think it even qualified as walking briskly. Meandering, perhaps. Tortoises were passing these guys, despite a dozen or so people waiting patiently for their cars.
When the valet brought my car tonight, I tipped her nicely for doing her job so well and told her about my experience down south. She commented, "Sounds like a couple of idiots. Don't they realize we do this for tips, and the more cars we get, the more we make?"
Exactly! Then she ran off to retrieve another car.Labels: columns